.NET Core MSBuild is missing the LC task

From @livarcocc on Monday, April 24, 2017 5:08:10 PM

From @alienisty on April 24, 2017 1:58

Steps to reproduce

Just create a project with a licenses.licx file definition and build the project with

dotnet build project.csproj

Expected behavior

The project builds and the license information are compiled in the binaries

Actual behavior

The following error is raised:

C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\1.0.3\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2977,5): error MSB4062: The “Microsoft.Build.Tasks.LC” task could not be loaded from the assembly Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Core, Version=15.1.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a. Confirm that the <UsingTask> decl aration is correct, that the assembly and all its dependencies are available, and that the task contains a public class that implements Microsoft.Build.Framework.ITask. 0 Warning(s) 1 Error(s)

Environment data

dotnet --info output:

.NET Command Line Tools (1.0.3)

Product Information: Version: 1.0.3 Commit SHA-1 hash: 37224c9917

Runtime Environment: OS Name: Windows OS Version: 6.3.9600 OS Platform: Windows RID: win81-x64 Base Path: C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\1.0.3

Copied from original issue: dotnet/cli#6389

Copied from original issue: microsoft/msbuild#2006

[weltkante]

There already is no (working) licensing in .NET Core, some fractions of the old infrastructure remain working, but as a whole it does not work even now. Its a longstanding open issue. Considering its not even officially possible yet to develop custom controls its not a major issue.

The deprecation of BF will be much more catastrophic to the Clipboard and Drag and Drop systems though if/when it gets deprecated there as well, these require it and I’m not aware of a plan for a replacement. (Though maybe there are internal plans not made public yet?)

[EamonHetherton]

For anyone is the same boat I am currently in with migrating older code containing components that use the license.licx runtime licensing model towards dotnet core and wanting to use “dotnet build” here is the workaround that I am using.

Caveat; it works for me, YMMV.

1. Ensure your licenses.licx file is included in your project with BuildAction “EmbeddedResource”
2. Build project using visual studio or msbuild
3. Find “[projectname].exe.licenses” file in obj folder and copy to root of exe project and include as EmbeddedResource
4. Change licenses.licx to BuildAction “None” to avoid “error MSB4062: The “Microsoft.Build.Tasks.LC” task could not be loaded”

now you can build using dotnet build without getting “error MSB4062: The “Microsoft.Build.Tasks.LC” task could not be loaded from the assembly Microsoft.Build.Tasks.Core” and with proper runtime licences embedded.

This may become tedious if you are regularly changing the components/versions etc. and your licenses.licx files changes but for me the components using the licenses.licx model have not changed in a number of years so neither has my licenses.licx file and I don’t expect it to change anytime soon, more likely they’ll eventually be replaced by something that does not need licenses.licx entries.